¡Buenas 2014!
¡Hello 2014!
Thursday Jan. 23rd will be my first DJ appearance this year, and it’s the opening party for new bar La Ventana alongside Li Saumet of Bomba Estéreo and DJ Karim. Join us!
"Altiplano Urbano" released on Sounds and Colours!
Many thanks to Latin American music and culture magazine Sounds and Colours for featuring my latest mixtape, ALTIPLANO URBANO!
The mixtape highlights recent iterations of huayno music and sampling reaching throughout the cordillera, spanning dembow with quena to hip hop remixes from the island of San Andrés sampling Peruvian Youtube star Wendy Sulca, as well as the first appearance of Riobamba edits. The project is dedicated to movement, displacement and my family ambateña, gente of the diaspora andina. ¡Que viva huaynoton!
Also thanks to BCD Wire for the chance to share some of my favorite tracks to prepare for last month’s Picó Picante. Read the full article here, Picó Picante Warms Up Good Life After Cold Week.
PA' PICAR 003 - MONOSÓNIKO CHAMPETÚO
PA’ PICAR 003 features the super talentoso Monosóniko Champetúo. I caught up with Monosóniko as he was preparing for the second edition of his Rarezas Bailables party with selector Barba Roja, featuring rare vinyl selections “que ni Shazam con toda su fama puede encontrar."
Monosóniko relocated to Bogotá from Barranquilla, having grown up surrounded by Afro-Caribbean sounds in his neighborhood of La Chinita and Simon Bolivar, where he developed his vacile super efecto alongside his father and brother, both seasoned picoteros.
This edition features an interview with Monosóniko and a live vinyl champeta set recorded in his home studio, as well as a video demo of his improvisation style and perreo sample catalogue working with the Casio SK5 keyboard. ¡Para gozar!
PICÓ PICANTE, Vol. 33
PICÓ PICANTE, Vol. 33
Friday, January 17, 2014. 10:00pm [event page]
$5 before 11PM, $10 after
ULTRATUMBA [Picó Picante]
http://www.ultratumba.net/
OXYCONTINENTAL [Picó Picante]
http://oxycontinental.com/
BRYNMORE
https://soundcloud.com/djbrynmore
AND BOSTON’S #1 REGGAE SELECTOR–
JUNIOR RODIGAN
Visuals: HEXBEAM
http://templeofmessages.com/HEXbeam/
new skins
Big thanks to artist / illustrator / designer / hustler buddy Autumn Ahn for designing the new Riobamba logo! Feeling fancy. Check out more of her work at autumnahn.com.
Picó Picante nominated for Boston Music Award
Thanks to the Boston Music Awards for showing Picó Picante love! Picó was nominated for Best Dance Night for the second consecutive year. Lots of love to everyone for the ongoing support <3
PICÓ PICANTE, Vol. 32
Friday, November 15th, 9:30 PM.
SLICK VICK
http://soundcloud.com/djslickvick-1
OXYCONTINENTAL [Picó Picante]
http://oxycontinental.com/
WAYNE & WAX
http://wayneandwax.com/
DJ RIPLEY [Dutty Artz]
http://soundcloud.com/ripley
DJ RIPLEY strings together street bass sounds from urban centers all over the world where immigrants mix the music from their hometowns with big bass and drum machines. Her eclectic, high-energy sets welcome all backgrounds, sexualities, races, genders, and she’s opened minds and lit up dancefloors across 22 countries on three continents since 1995. Originally with the Toneburst Collective in Boston, Ripley is a co-founder of the Surya Dub crew in San Francisco, and currently a member of the Dutty Artz crew in New York.
This month also features ethnomusicologist, writer and DJ WAYNE&WAX (check out his recent Raggamuffin Hip-Hop mix co-produced with Pace for Cluster Mag), Picó resident OXYCONTINENTAL and the debut of the vibrant sounds of SLICK VICK and her love of bringing life to the dancefloor.
Picó will be downstairs, with Adam Gibbons of Boston’s Afro-diasporic dancefloor explosion Uhuru Afrika upstairs at Unity, $5 all night at Good Life. We love you forever.
PA' PICAR PROFILE: Papa con Yuca
At the end of August, nationwide strikes and protests numbering in the thousands reached Bogotá, reflecting widespread discontent with the implementation of the TLC free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia and the irreparable harm to Colombian campesinos. Coupled withrampant urban inequality further solidified by neoliberal policies and politicians’ close family ties to media dynasties, popular discontent rose to a boiling point as protesters grew to the tens of thousands “to include dissatisfied teachers, miners, doctors and students critical of what they say are government privatisation policies that are making them vulnerable to market volatility. Protesters [demanded] government subsidies for agricultural commodities and reduced fuel prices” (Al Jazeera).
During the week of the agrarian paro in Bogotá, Pablo Martínez, vocalist for 70s nuyorican-style salsa band La 33, gathered with some friends to reflect on the situation and on their roles as artists. In solidarity with the demonstrators, they decided to record a version of the campesino protest songCampesino Embejucao (see below) and convert it to have the chorus “Papa con Yuca” to reflect a tagline from the current struggle. Encouraging submissions from artists across disciplines in Bogotá’s independent music scene, the idea resulted in a multi-disciplinary collaborative project gathering together more than 60 musicians both in-person and outside of the country to “create an original song as our form of pacifist resistance,” as described by Pablo.
¡PA' PICAR alive!
The PA’ PICAR mixtape and interview series debuts this month with hip hop bogotano crew Patadas al Kraneo! The cross-genre series showcases producers utilizing digital production tools and distribution networks for new levels of artistic agency and self-representation.
Patadas al Kraneo has spent the past eleven years developing their craft of protest hip hop and self-taught production skills, working to strengthen the underground Colombian movement and to bring political injustices at home to light on a worldwide level through their lyrics. The mixtape features original music from their albums Entre el Odio y la Ternura and La Fuerza Elite, and unreleased tracks from their forthcoming album Los Días Antes del Fin.
Special shout thanks to Ernesto Morales for the series’ design! Check the link below for the mixtape, interview and live session at Beat Trafficker Records studios. Much more to come!
PA’ PICAR 001 - PATADAS AL KRANEO
PICÓ PICANTE, Volume 31
Friday October 11th 2013, 10pm.
ULTRATUMBA [Picó Picante]
http://www.ultratumba.net/
SWELTA [#FEELINGS]
http://soundcloud.com/djahswelta
DJ USHKA [Dutty Artz, iBomba]
http://soundcloud.com/djushka
Visuals: HEXBEAM
http://templeofmessages.com/HEXbeam/
DJ Ushka is a Sri Lankan-born, Thailand-raised, Brooklyn-living migrant, and her musical influences are as transnational as she is. She is a deejay, activist, cultural organizer and half of iBomba. She deejays from the perspective of a dancer, with the philosophy that global genre-bending connects cross-cultural struggles and tells important stories between communities, and most importantly translates this onto dancefloors. Her well-received debut mixtape Foreign Brown was profiled in Sounds and Colours and reached audiences in North America, South America and the UK.